The peat dog, Torfspitz, or Pfahlbauspitz (Canis palustris, Canis familiaris palustris Rütimeyer), was a prehistoric dog that lived with humans.
For a long time it was assumed that the Terrier, Spitz and Schnauzer breeds emerged from it. This theory is now considered outdated.
This type of dog was first described in more detail by the Swiss zoologist Ludwig Rütimeyer (1825-1895) based on finds in Swiss lake dwelling settlements from the Neolithic period (approx. 5,500-2,200 BC).
Among other things, the Swiss zoologist and cynologist Theophil Studer (1845-1922) also described the remains of some of the animals found as spitz-like, from which the primordial breed theory published in 1901 developed: the peat dog is the direct ancestor of all Nordic breeds, the German spitz and over various levels too other dog breeds. The other progenitors would be Canis leineri (hypothetical progenitor of greyhounds and Irish wolfhound), Canis intermedius (hypothetical progenitor of hunting dogs), Canis matris optimae (hypothetical progenitor of shepherd dogs) and Canis inostanzeni (hypothetical progenitor of Nordic dogs, German shepherd dog). and the mastiff).
This theory has been refuted by modern DNA analyses. All domestic dogs descend from a common ancestor like the wolf. It can be said with certainty that dogs went through an enormous development process in the second half of the peat age and people began to breed different types of dogs. Because of the skull finds, three known breeds are assumed at the moment, which are similar in head shape to today's Spitz, Terriers and Schnauzers. Researchers suspect that the early diversity of forms of domestic dogs is an unmistakable feature of domestication and not, as described in the theory of primordial breeds, to be derived from breeding lines of different species, so this assumption is no longer tenable.
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Further reading on this
Henriette Kroll: Hundeleben im Neolithikum. In: Von Peißen nach Wiederitzsch. Archäologie an einer Erdgas-Trasse. MITGAS, Gröbers 2004
Friedrich von Alten: Die Kreisgruben in den Watten der Nordsee. In: Bericht über die Thätigkeit des Oldenburger Landesvereins für Alterthumskunde. Heft 3, 1881, ZDB-ID 965551-7
Markus Bertling, Heather Gill-Frerking, Wilfried Rosendahl: The bog dog from Burlage. In: Alfried Wieczorek, Wilfried Rosendahl (Hrsg.): Mummies of the world. Prestel, München u. a. 2010, ISBN 978-3-7913-5030-1
Otto Antonius: Grundzüge einer Stammesgeschichte der Haustiere. Gustav Fischer, Jena 1922
Erik Zimen: Der Hund. Abstammung – Verhalten – Mensch und Hund (= Goldmann 12397). Vollständige Taschenbuchausgabe. Goldmann, München 1992, ISBN 3-442-12397-6
Theophil Studer, Die praehistorischen Hunde in ihrer Beziehung zu den gegenwärtig lebenden Rassen. In: Abhandlungen der Schweizerischen Palaeontologischen Gesellschaft. Band 28, 1901, S. 1–137, Zugang zum Volltext (PDF; 11,0 MB)
Theophil Studer, Ueber Hunde aus den Crannoges von Irland. http://www.wolfhound.ch/Files/PDF/StuderD.PDF